"God, Auggie, I never thought you were so blind."
The last words she'd said echoed in Auggie's mind as he heard her heels click. She was moving away from him, leaving him there alone.
"Annie, wait!" he called out to her. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to find RedRover," she called back softly, though there was a bitter edge to her voice. "Are you coming or not?"
"Annie, what—" he was cut off by her hand on his shoulder.
"Oh honey, don't be silly," she trilled too loudly. "We should go back to our room and…" she trailed off suggestively.
Auggie gulped. Her sudden mood change could only mean one thing: they were close to being made by yet another source.
"Wha—whatever you say… darling…" he managed to choke out. He knew that something was definitely off, but he also knew that now was not the time to figure it out.
She took his hand and led him through what felt like throngs of people. They took many unnecessary turns and weaved through shops. Every once in a while, Annie would make a comment about their surroundings.
"Oh, look at this beautiful scarf! I wish I'd remembered some money."
"Honey, remind me to come back for that lovely tea set tomorrow."
And so on.
He could tell from these small hints that they were not headed to their hotel room. They were headed to the café where the waitress had seen RedRover.
At one moment, when she was particularily close, he leaned in and whispered,
"What the hell are you doing?"
She tightened her grip on his arm, and leaned into him.
"I have a theory. Just shut up and go along with it." She paused, then leaned in so that she was almost kissing his cheek. "I'm sure you'll have no trouble playing the ignorant blind guy."
Then she wrenched her body from his grasp, slid her hand down his arm to take hold of his hand, and roughly led him the remaining distance.
"Hi, sir!" she called brightly to the man at the counter. "I'm so very sorry to bother you, but I forgot to tip my waitress yesterday, and I was wondering if you'd mind if I did so today."
The man went on to respond that she was off today, but that he'd be happy to give her an address. Auggie was shocked at the man's stupidity, but if the man's stuttering was anything to go by, Annie had released her full charms on the man. Auggie knew the poor guy hadn't stood a snow ball's chance in hell.
Not three minutes later they were in a quiet alley, and Auggie finally had a chance to voice some of his thoughts.
"Okay," he said, trying to scrounge up some anger to cover his hurt and confusion. "Want to tell me your brilliant plan here?"
"Well," Annie began slowly. "RedRover didn't seem like the type to let anyone have a clue to her identity. So, either we'd find a dead body, or…" there were foot steps behind him, "…we'd find you. RedRover."
"How did you know?"
The waitress?